SURF TALK: Brevard Has Rich History, Came to Life in the 1960s During Space Race

SPACE COAST DAILY TV SPECIAL PRESENTATION

SPACE COAST DAILY TV: Florida’s Space Coast is the surf capital of the East Coast. The Friday Night Locker Room’s Orville Susong and Steve Wilson are LIVE from the Raddison at Port Canaveral for SURF TALK, sponsored by the Florida Historical Society.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Florida’s Space Coast is the surf capital of the East Coast.

Brevard County’s surfing heritage dates back to the 1950s and early 1960s when a core group of surfers with their plank-like long boards regularly made their trek up from South Florida to Cocoa Beach and Melbourne Beaches.

The Space Coast’s 72 miles of beaches continue to bear the fruits of our love of hitting the waves. The area plays host to several annual surfing competitions from the Ron Jon Easter Surfing Festival to the Beach N’ Boards Fest.

Brevard is also the hometown of several international surfers including current world surfing champion Kelly Slater.

Here are the Top Ten Surfing Spots to hit up when you’re on our coast:

10. Playalinda Beach
The pristine, sandbar-laden national park known as Playalinda Beach receives more press for being a nude beach than a surf spot, but it offers a rare undeveloped spot to test your surfing skills.

9. Cocoa Beach Pier
The Pier is a legendary landmark for surfing competitions of world-wide significance. Surfing here is like catching a wave back through surfing history.Breaks on almost every type of swell. North swells are chest to head high zone.

8. Tables
Driving south from Cocoa Beach, Picnic Tables is located just across the street from Patrick Air Force Base. Known as Pine Trees in the 70’s, it has always been a great place for friends to gather, featuring plenty of parking, a decent sandbar and a pavilion with picnic tables, showers and bathrooms. The wave is usually peaky and fun, provided there is a bit of a swell.

7. Indialantic Boardwalk
Located halfway between Sebastian Inlet and Cocoa Beach, you’ll discover Indialantic’s Boardwalk. Shorebreak is the boardwalk’s claim to fame. The outside sandbar can be fun on a medium tide, but is best when linking all the way to the inside. There’s plenty of beach and lots of sandbars, so you’ll have a great opportunity to seek your own peak.

6. Spessard Holland
This community beach park with seasonal lifeguards is popular for family outings. It’s also a great place to surf. When a swell has other tide spots washing through, Spessard Holland can be clean and throwing. A deep trough past the inside sandbar allows for steep waves to cascade over the drastic depth change, creating a mid-section with the feet and push of a shorebreak.

5. Spanish House
Earning its name from the large, Spanish-style home just steps from the break, the house is a popular spot since the days of hitchhiking and no leashes. Surfers will find ideal conditions, a strong swell, low tide, and an offshore breeze. Top-to-bottom barrels are a usual occurrence. Spanish House is the first parking area and beach access north of Sebastian Inlet.

4. Shark Pit
The Shark Pit surf spot inherited its infamous name from its frequent shark sightings. Certainly the best beach break for just the right swell and bank to crank. For this reason, the Pit continues to be one of the areas most mysterious surf spots, due to its closely guarded secret location north of Sebastian Inlet.

3. The Streets
Running from 1st Street through 4th Street north and 1st Street through 30th Street south, these streets comprise Cocoa Beach’s residential area. However, there’s public access and parking every block and it’s absolutely FREE! In general, the swell isn’t as great as the southern end, but it serves as a better high-tide spot and the surf’s uncluttered.

2. R.C.’s
According to local lore, R.C.’s is considered Central Florida’s best big wave spot.

1. Sebastian Inlet
Sebastian Inlet is the break most synonymous with all of East Coast surfing and even rumored to be the birthplace of the aerial. Popular with the surfing community since the 60’s, sessions at Sebastian Inlet continue to set and raise standards for breaks nationwide. Swells bounce off the jetty at First Peak with extra juice that can max out the potential of a head-high wave. Equally popular siblings include Second Peak, Third Peak and OK Signs.

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